Violence in the United

We employ two surveys to identify similarities and differences in the risk of abuse among poor urban Mexican-origin women in the United States and Mexico. While the two surveys reveal basic structural similarity in the predictors of partner violence, the rate of violence among Mexican women is far lower than among either foreign-born or native-born Mexican origin women in the United States. While these differences may reflect reality, we argue that survey data must be interpreted cautiously and with an understanding of the cultural, economic, and political context in which the information is collected as well as methodological differences between the surveys. Keywords comparative research, culture and measurement, domestic abuse, Mexico, partner violence During the 20th century increasing international migration, rapid improvements in elec-tronic media, and the internationalization of social problems have made the world a much smaller place. The grinding poverty and serious political and social disorganization that afflicts many developing nations and that remained largely invisible to the citizens of the developed world in previous decades are today brought to their attention on a daily basis. The same is true for the serious violence that afflicts so much of humanity. Today it i